STEM, wants business sector backing for Grade Six Mathematics app.

The widely publicized STEMGuyana Project, launched here last year by a team comprising Atlantabased Guyanese Karen Abrams and her three children, is engaging the private sector to seek its support for the project’s latest initiative, a National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA) application designed to give support to children preparing for the National Grade Six Assessment.

Abrams, a regular columnist with the Stabroek Business told this newspaper during an exclusive interview on Tuesday that she was buoyed by President David Granger’s announcement on Monday that the government would meet the cost of 100 tablets for the pool of “test students” who will be involved in a monitoring exercise to determine the overall effectiveness of the NGSA application.

Stabroek Business has seen a copy of correspondence sent to the PSC by Abrams seeking the body’s support for what she described as a “public-private, diaspora-local initiative.” STEM’s proposal for private sector support proffers a multi-tiered sponsorship option beginning with a “Match the President” option that targets the expansion of the test pool of students to up to 1,000 of the more than 14,000 Grade Five children who will sit the Grade Six examination next year.

STEM’s request for PSC support also floats the idea of a sponsor-a-student initiative at US$10 per student, which it says will allow the organization “to cover the administrative costs of outreach to underperforming students including those in the outer regions of Guyana.” This option allows sponsors to identify the regions and schools from which they would like to sponsor students.

Other sponsorship options allow private sector sponsors to have their names included as a sponsor of the app and to have their names promoted on STEM’s website and Facebook pages for contributions of US$2,500 and US$1,000, respectively.

Abrams said that it would be entirely fitting that STEM’s NGSA initiative be driven by the joint support of the public and private sectors bearing in mind that improving the performance of children at the Grade Six examination was a result that would benefit the private sector as much as it would the country as a whole. “Raising our game as far as proficiency in mathematics is something which I expect the business community would have an interest in,” she said. “Mathematics is an essential part of the gateway to the creation of a technological society as it is also important to laying the foundation for a level of proficiency that would lead to an enhanced business environment, As such we would be more than happy to work with and secure the support of the private sector.”

On Tuesday, Abrams said that following the launch of the mathematics app, STEM received 1,000 “downloads,” a development which she said “provides evidence of an encouraging level of interest among both the children themselves and their parents. We are tremendously encouraged by the public response.”

Abrams said she was also encouraged by the level of interest being shown by the Ministry of Education. Stabroek Business understands that Abrams was due to meet officials of the ministry, including Acting Chief Education Officer Marcel Hutson earlier this week.